What a week. There is much to catch you up on! But before I get to the fun stuff, let's set the scene a bit. This week we began the head and neck unit of anatomy. This includes learning about the vasculature, musculature and nervous tissue in the brain, spinal cord and surrounding structures. In addition, we have two new classes starting to go along with histology, anatomy and anatomy lab: embryology and clinical medicine.
Of course, the content of embryology is pretty straight forward - human conception and development. I am already astounded that any of us make it to birth. Honestly, there are so many complicated steps that birth indeed deserves its label, the miracle of life.
Clinical medicine, or clin med as we affectionately refer to it, marks the beginning of our training in bedside manner. We are learning about effective lines of questioning and how best to develop trustworthy rapport in a very short amount of time. I am almost certain that our professor was making a joke by showing a Monty Python clip in lecture, but the point was well taken. Those British goofballs were prepping an operating room with all of the most expensive equipment, but couldn't tell what was missing - the patient! The ironic point was - everything else ought to be secondary to focusing on the patient.
OK, now onto the good stuff. On Tuesday I cut open a human skull and took out the brain. It was spectacular. Of course, I was the one working the circular saw (wouldn't have it any other way). The complexity of our innermost workings never ceases to amaze. There were a few neurosurgeons wandering around the lab to answer our questions and it was fascinating to hear about some of the functional deficits associated with certain events, i.e. vision loss in one eye following blunt force trauma to the skull, sudden losses of consciousness.
People, it just keeps getting cooler and cooler.
Friday was elections for Class Senate. I thought it might be interesting to get elected Class Vice President. So I did.
It sounds easier than it was when I put it that way, though. There was considerable competition from two other qualified candidates and my victory was made possible only by a very well received three-minute campaign speech before the student body. Public speaking is like a sporting event. Adrenaline rush before you get up there. Those few deciding moments with no room for stuttering or verbal missteps. You leave it all at the podium and, let me tell you, there is no better feeling than coming out of it a success. Nothing better.
So the studying begins again. About 19 days until our next exam. Still don't have all of our scores back from the last exam, but so far I am satisfied. A slight improvement will put me into course-honoring territory. Considering that the first exam is historically the worst for everyone, I am in very good shape.
That's all for now. Thanks for reading!
Medical factoid of the day: The auriculotemporal nerve is a terminal branch of the trigeminal cranial nerve. It provides sensory innervation to the skin of the temple region on the side of the head. During development this nerve encounters the developing middle meningeal artery, which supplies blood to a protective membrane, the dura, that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. However, instead of coursing around the artery during development, the auriculotemporal nerve splits then comes back together, creating a very rare "needle and thread" appearance with the middle meningeal artery.
